By Gus Saltonstall
The first candidate forum in the NY-12 Congressional race to replace longtime Rep. Jerrold Nadler will take place Thursday on the Upper West Side.
West Side Democrats, which was named the most powerful political club in New York in 2024, will host the event, which is both free, and open to the public.
The forum will happen at 7 p.m. on Thursday at Goddard Riverside, at 593 Columbus Avenue, between West 88th and 89th streets.
“Having all the candidates in one room really gives you a sense of who they are,” Christine Annechino, President of West Side Democrats, told West Side Rag in a statement. “You can read articles, campaign materials, and listen to interviews — but seeing them together, at the same time, answering real questions from the community they want to represent, tells you a lot more than anything else.”
The candidates taking part in the forum, as confirmed by Annechino, are Alex Bores, Laura Dunn, Jamie Floyd, Micah Lasher, Alan Pardee, Jack Schlossberg, Nina Schwalbe, and Matthew Shurka.
Cameron Kasky, an activist and survivor of the Parkland High School shooting, dropped out of the race last week.
The event will not be a debate-style format; instead, each candidate will have the opportunity to deliver a short speech one by one before fielding questions from members of the West Side Democrats. There will not be a video option for the event.
Also noteworthy is the fact that Nadler is a member of West Side Democrats, along with other Upper West Side elected officials, such as Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, Councilmember Gale Brewer, and Assemblymember and candidate in the congressional race, Lasher.
In 2020, Community Free Democrats, Ansonia Independent Democrats, and Park River Independent Democrats formed to create West Side Democrats, which covers the Upper West Side’s Assembly Districts 67 and 69.
Before Nadler’s tenure in the Assembly began in 1977, he was a member and briefly the executive director of the above-mentioned Community Free Democrats.
West Side Rag will be at the NY-12 candidate forum in person to cover the event, as well.
Read More: The Race to Replace Longtime UWS Leader Jerry Nadler Is Very Crowded
Subscribe to West Side Rag’s FREE email newsletter here. And you can Support the Rag here.
